Skiing in Austria

As I posted earlier, I was in Austria for a week, over Christmas and I just got back on Saturday midday.

Friday night we drove to Hildesheim, a small city about 2 hours west of Osnabrück, where we loaded our car onto the "Eisenbahn". The Eisnbahn is a type of train that you can drive your car onto and sleep in the train, while the train transports your car in the back. We loaded our car around 8 o clock and then we slept in the train in compartments. If anyone here has seen the James Bond movie "From Russia with Love", those kinds of compartments are exactly like what we slept in on the ride to Austria. I really like the whole overnight train idea. You go to sleep in the dark, and then wake up in your destination. We arrived in Innsbruck around 8:00. Then we unloaded our car and drove another 2hrs to Serfaus, Tirol.

Serfaus is a little town in Austria whose population probably multiplies ten fold for skiing season, when it becomes overrun with tourists from Europe and the occasional Americans.

The Saturday morning we got there, we calmly unpacked in the whole town, and then made our way to the ski gear rental shop, where we borrowed skis, ski sticks, shoes and such. Then we went back to our hotel room, watched some TV and then went out and ate dinner at a restaurant.

The next 6 days, I took part in a ski course for beginners. It was quite an interesting and fun experience. I learned quickly and I also made some good new friends doing the ski class. We developed a good sense of companionship, skiing 10 till 4 every day, falling down together a bizzilion times, and eating lunch together. I have to add that I've never skied before, and I started out as a total beginner. I'm proud to say that NOW I CAN SKI! I'm no James Bond or anything like that, but I can ski down piste.